On April 26, 1986, a radioactive release 10 times bigger than the nuclear bomb on Hiroshima occurred at the Chernobyl nuclear power station inside the Soviet Union. It would go down in history as one of the worst disasters of its kind.

The explosion blasted radioactive gas and dust into the air, and winds carried it across central and southern Europe. Thirty-one people died in the accident, and countless lives have been affected long-term by the exposure to radiation.

Around 350,000 people were forced to evacuate their homes in the "Nuclear Exclusion Zone," the area in a 19-mile radius around the plant. The town hardest hit was Pripyat, Ukraine — it was quickly abandoned and remains empty to this day.

Ahead, 17 photos that show what the zone looked like in 2016.

1/

The cause of the explosion was two-fold. The first major issue was that the power station was built with faulty construction and what American physicist and Nobel laureate Hans Bethe has called "built-in instability."

At the time of the accident, the power station had four 1,000-megawatt power reactors in place. A fifth one was in the works.

Gleb Garanich/Reuters

3/

One of the multiple issues was the reactor's containment structure. Built entirely of concrete, it should have been reinforced with steel. Here, a view of a baby's crib in the abandoned village of Zalesye.

Gleb Garanich/Reuters

4/

The more direct cause of the explosion was an electrical engineering experiment gone extremely awry.

Gleb Garanich/Reuters

5/

Engineers wanted to test if they could draw electricity from turbine generators while the reactors were turned off, but the turbines were still spinning inertially.

Gleb Garanich/Reuters

6/

To conduct their experiment, they had to turn off many of the power station's automatic safety controls, and also remove a majority of the plant's control rods, which absorb neutrons and limit the reaction.

Gleb Garanich/Reuters

7/

In a crunch for time, the engineers turned the reactor's power levels down much too quickly.

Gleb Garanich/Reuters

8/

That fatal mistake led to another series of destructive choices, eventually leading to a massive chemical explosion.

Gleb Garanich/Reuters

9/

Pieces of burning metal went in the air, causing fires where they landed. Due to the poisonous radiation, the Chernobyl site was declared a permanent no-go zone.

Gleb Garanich/Reuters

10/

The city of Pripyat, located a little over a mile from the nuclear plant, was inhabited mostly by power plant workers and their families.

Gleb Garanich/Reuters

11/

On the day following the explosion, April 27, civilians were bussed out with little time to collect all of their belongings.

Gleb Garanich/Reuters

12/

To enter the city today, visitors must go through security checks and have proper authorization and a tour guide.

Gleb Garanich/Reuters

13/

Child-size gas masks are routinely found inside abandoned child-care facilities such as this one.

Gleb Garanich/Reuters

14/

The coat of arms of the former Soviet Union sits on top of an abandoned apartment building in Pripyat.

Gleb Garanich/Reuters

15/

Reports have been made that although no human life is in Chernobyl, scours of animal life has since thrived near the disaster site.

A dog roams Pripyat.
Gleb Garanich/Reuters

16/

Radioactive water, ground soil, and air are still affecting those around the Nuclear Exclusion Zone.